prooem will face the media head on about general allen and the physical cliff. >> and a tragic plane crash killed three people on their way to an faa safety conference. >> announcer: this is "early today" for wednesday november 14th, 2012. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. and today for the first time we expect to hear from president obama directly as his administration is rocked by scandals involving two of the men he counted on most.

former cia director david petraeus and afghan war commander general john allen. the newest headlines are creating even more of a tangled web. this morning's "wall street journal" reports general allen, who is now under investigation for e-mails between he and jill kelley of tampa florida, is telling associates that he received an e-mail traced back to paula broadwell, the petraeus biographer. the broadwell e-mail was written under the pseudonym kelley patrol. it described kelley as a, quote, is he duct tres, and warned the general of becoming involved with her. the journal reports that kelley tried to get the fbi to drop the investigation that began with kelley's complaint with harassing e-mails traced back to broadwell. people familiar with the case tell the journal that she became worried about personal information being provided to

investigators. meanwhile, the washington post quotes senior law enforcement officials saying the search conducted at broadwell's home monday night marks an interest in how she became interested in classified files. kelley said she had state department status that owe sfigs alls say she did not have. news crews, including nbc, staked out her home. at one point she invoked diplomatic ivileges. >> i am an honorary consul general so i have inviolability. they shouldn't be able to get into my property. i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection as well. >> just who is jill kelley. her name has come up in connection wittwo of the nation's top commanders. more now on her sry from nbc's kristin walker. >> mrs. kelley, how are you

doing? >> reporter: jill kelley was well known in social circles around tampa. she and husband scott, a surgeon, threw lavish parties at their ten bedroom home that sol for $1.5 million in 2004. they had top notch catering. a couple about town. >> jill was all the smiling, vivacious. >> reporter: aaron fodoman publishes tampa bay magazine. the kelleys frequented the magazine's pages. >> there was always a bevy of people around them. it would seem like no matter where they went people enjoyed talking to them, being with them. >> reporter: and they were often seen hob knobbing with top litary brass, connections jill kelley made while organizing social events at nearby madill air force base. >> she is a deep down good

person. >> reporter: she and her brother is rushing to her defense. federal authorities are investigating thousands of e-mails between kelley and marine commander john allen. quam says they are only good friends. >> all i do know is my sister didn't do anything wrong. i know that from talking to her. i know she's a victim and i don't know what else to tell you. >> reporter: the kelleys have asked for privacy and did not return our calls. they have hired high powered washington attorney ab by lowell. and in a story that gets more bizarre by the hour, you can add the comments of religious broadcaster pat robertson. on monday's edition of the 700 club robertson had this analysis of petraeus/broadwell affair said -- >> the man's off in a foreign land and he's lonely and here's a good looking lady throwing herself at him. he's a man. >> as we mentioned, we are

expecting to hear from president obama on these growing scandals later today. nbc news will have live coverage of the president's news conference from the east room at the white house beginning at 1:30 eastern time, 10:30 pacific right here on this nfc station. now for your look at the weather, here's nbc bill karins. hopefully it's a little bit less complicated than this tangled web of information. it is very complicated. hopefully your weather forecast isn't like that. >> i don't have an eighth of the drama. i need some kind of love triangle in the weather office. good morning, everyone. here's what we're looking at in the forecast today. the temperatures have plunge bed in the east coast. if you're heading out this morning, do bundle yourself up in the northeast. temperatures are 20 to 30 degrees colder in the northeast than they were yesterday. that's not factoring in the winds. the cold front went through yesterday. now in the midwest where it has been cold, temperatures are a little bit warmer. wind chill is not as bad around

minneapolis and dallas. right now, nothing too brutal. temperatures are where they should be in mid november, morning lows in the 20s and 30s. florida is probably the one exception who didn't get any cold, chilly air. the cold front is headed off the coast. i think just about everyone can leave their umbrella at home today. the only spot later today and tonight is down here along the southeast coast line. jacksonville, savannah, possibly interior sections of georgia could get a little bit of wet weather. today's forecast is nice. decent afternoon in new england with sunshine and trying to do the warmup from denver, kansas city, oklahoma city. you get the gist of it. nice, quiet weather pattern for a change. that's a look at the national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. sunshine and 51 in washington, d.c., today. that's not a bad day after the cold start this morning. dallas, texas, nice afternoon for you, sunny and 63 degrees.

areas in florida, probably one of the only warm spots out there. not that i was hoping for a -- any drama in the weather office. no love triangles are needed. >> way to get that on record. h.r. is watching. bill, thanks. >> especially since there's only one person. >> it could be complicated. well, the rock center christmas tree stands up to sandy, and almost 3 million cars recalled for steering problems. is yours one of them? plus, guess who's going to get the lions share of the blame if the country goes off the fiscal cliff. here's a hint for you. it isn't president obama. you are watching "early today."

recalled for steering problems. welcome back. stories making news this morning. a knew pew research center poll finds that republicans in congress will be more to blame if the u.s. goes off the fiscal cliff. 53% of those surveyed point the finger at the gop while 29% say president obama would be more to

blame. 20-year-old mitchell kusick of colorado has been charged with threatening to kill president obama during an october campaign event. kusick also made credible threats towards shooting and killing children at a halloween event. defense secretary leon panetta has demoted the former head of the u.s. africa command general william kip ward for allegedly spending thousands of dollars on lavish travel and other travels. he will retire as a three star general and repay the government $82,000. a man who made an ak cuization has now recanted his story. he says their sexual relationship was adult and consensual and clash says he is relieved. well, this year's rockefeller christmas tree is on its way right now to washington, d.c., from new jersey. the 80 foot tall norway spruce

survived hurricane sandy. for a check on wall street, the dow fell 59 points tuesday. the s&p was down five. the nasdaq lost 20. taking a look at overseas trading vlgt in tokyo the nikkei was up 20. the dow's losses could have been much worse tuesday. impressive earnings from home depot gave the blue chip some support. on the down side, ohio based a.k. steel tanked 17% on a weak quarterly outlook. after the bell cisco surged on better than expected earnings. >> in the wake of mounting protests by pouperless victims of superstorm sandy, long island power's chief executive officer resigned. zynga's chief executive officer is going to work at facebook. the chief officer at waffle house is facing accusations of

sexual assault. i am a victim of my own stupidity but i am not going to be a victim of crime, extorsion. steering defects and faulty water pumps have forced toyota to recall 2.7 million vehicles, including some prius hybrids and coroll corollas. target employees have nearly 200,000 signatures for a petition asking not to open at 9:00 p.m. on thanksgiving night. strike debt, an off shoot of occupy wall street, has a new way to help struggling 99 percenters. they've raised $129,000 to wipe out $2.5 million of defaulted debt for millions of people. here's a meal for 1 percenters with beef. 500 bucks for kobe beef stuffed with truffles. unreal. more enduring indulgence. mark ross could he's 1954 oil on

canvass number one royal red and blue brought in more than 7 a $5.1 million at soth they by as last night. an incredible mud slide caught on tape plus the woman and the idiot sign she must wear. and the jury verdict that breaks an official police code of silence. headlines are straight ahead. you're watching "early today."

other stories making news early today in america. there were no survivors on board a plane that crashed into a mississippi home. the fiery crash killed three people and injured one person who escaped before the house burst into flames. the pilot and passengers were headed to an faa safety conference before it went down. a federal jury awarded $850,000 to a female bartender who suffered a vicious beating by an off duty chicago cop. lawyers for cairo lean in a abruska successfully argued the city's history of looking the other way on police code of silence. the videotape of the beating was key to the jury reaching their verdict. a cleveland municipal court judge is not too happy with a woman caught driving on a sidewalk to pass a loaded school bus. sheena hardin was ordered to carry a sign that says only an idiot would drive on a sidewalk to pass a sidewalk.

the judge plans to personally monitor her today. finally, a water main break is forcing california residents to dig out from under a mountain of mud. the break caused a massive mud slide that buried some cars and forced some evacuations after 45,000 gallons of water came gushing down. officials say the broken pipe is over 80 years old. quite the mess. all right. in sports, we start with the only unbeaten team in the nba. the new york knicks got 25 points from carmelo anthony, the league scong leader in a 99-89 comeback win over orlando. the nicks five straight wins is their best since they made it into the nba finals in 1994. and a scary moment during the game as an orlando stunt team member fell when her footing slipped when she was being lifted to the man's shoulders. she did wave to the crowd as she was taken to the hospital and she is expected to be okay.

that's the spirit. two upsets in college basketball as seth curry scored 23 points and number 9 duke knocked off number 3 kentucky, 75-68. number 21 michigan state got a big second half from keith appling. they edged kansas 67-64. in baseball the american league manager of the year was bob meldin who let the oakland a's to their first title. and washington national's skipper davy johnson is the national league manager of the year leading his team to the league best record. it was the second manager of the year award for both johnson and meldin. all right. just ahead. you've been waiting for it. it's people magazine's sexiest man alive. and how anne hathaway got that gaunt look. plus, some of hurricane sandy's victims get an early holiday treat. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." today across the country it's a day of calm. this is what we've been needing for a while. there's not a lot of bad weather to talk about. just some chilly temperatures this morning and a nice afternoon. showers around orlando, jacksonville, coastal areas of south carolina and georgia. that's probably the only spots that maybe have to deal with an umbrella or wet weather later today. tomorrow not a lot changes. it's a tranquil weather pattern. temperatures across the northern half of the country should be in the 40s and everyone else in the

50s and 60s. lynn, next week there's a possible coastal storm in new england but it's kind of unsettled. more details ahead. >> all right, bill. thanks so much. well, the day has come for people magazine to unveil 2012's sexiest man alive. rumors and speculation have channing tatum as a possible front-runner. have you seen "magic mike." but ryan gosling's always been a front-runner. ann hathaway is starring in the new less miss ser rabls film. it causes her to lose 25 pounds. she went on a near starvation diet of two squares of dry owe the male paste a day. an experience she said was definitely nuts. we say crazy. now that the 2012 election is a thing of the past, steven kolber plans to take it nice and easy for a while.

>> after two years of relentless poll analysis, electoral map swiping, undecideds voter dial testing and being forced to use the word cuyahoga in a sentence, we can finally take a breather. just relax with a nice soothing cup of chammomile breeze and just let it all -- >> do you think it's too early to talk about 2016? we don't think so. >> we don't think so. >> yeah. >> and listen to this bizarre story. actress jan accusation e ger ras is a low figures out she didn't know she was married for 20 years. >> those vegas trips. >> she says she and big bang theory producer rob cohn drunk kenly got married at a drive through chapel. they thought papers had to be signed at a courthouse but apparently not in sin city. anything goes there.

he's apparently now getting married. his lawyer digs up, oh, by the way, you're still married. >> wow. >> i know. >> alimony. >> are you just throwing that out there? >> throwing that out there. >> have you tweeted her saying have you thought about this? >> depends on who's doing better. >> good point. this comes to us from wnbc 4 in new york city. organizers of the macy's thanksgiving day parade gave kids affected by hurricane sandy a very good reason to smile. they needed it. about 500 children received the inside scoop on six new floats hitting the parade route for the first time. the group toured each new edition and received a crash course on how the designers developed their ideas from sketches to the gigantic floats. so that's got to be fun for those kids there. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

it's 4:28, and it's freezing. some places around the area waking up at temperatures at or below the freezing point. we'll have the forecast. >> the driver's license of david petraeus' mistress turns up in the d.c. area. why she is hiding out here. >> plus while you were sleeping, a major car recall announced. why toyota is pulling millions of cars off the road. good morning, i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm eun yang. welcome on this wednesday, november 14th, 2012. the dulles toll road could

get more expensive. the airport authority would vote whether to raise tolls. next year to $2.45. then $3.50 by 2014. and $4.50 by 2015. tolls are expected to account for about half of the line's $6.5 billion price tag. also today, maryland's biggest casino is preparing for table games just a week after the question passed in the state. today maryland live will reveal plans to bring in 125 table games. owner david cordish will go over the redesign and when 24-hour gaming will begin. the tables will open up another 1,200 jobs. and they plan to open a new training school, which will open in january. recommendations to keep 911 service active during a storm. the council will reveal reports.